52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 5: In the Census

There aren't many early census records surviving in Ireland as the vast majority of pre-1922 records were destroyed in the Irish Civil War by a fire at the Public Record Office.

 This means looking for alternative records.
A great census alternative is Griffith's Valuation, an extensive property valuation undertaken by Richard Griffith and published between 1847 and 1864.

The following website produced this list of Morgans in Derrynoose

The wonderful website ASK ABOUT IRELAND has a searchable function for records and maps in Griffith's Valuation.

Using the map function in which you can overlay the old map upon the current I was able to create an image that shows where each Morgan family lived.

(Unfortunately, this image seems a bit small to read easily but I can't seem to enlarge it here any further).

My Dad, brother Ross and I have made DNA matches with third cousins in my Morgan line from Armagh, Ireland.
Marcella and Kathleen are great-granddaughters of Ann Morgan who emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1865 where she married a John Courtney.
Ann was the youngest sister of my great-great-grandfather, John Morgan. John emigrated to Australia in 1855 with two sisters, Margaret and Bridget.
They were children of Alexander Morgan and Ann/Nancy Lennon of Derrynoose, Armagh, Ireland.

If my hunch is correct a recent new DNA match is a fourth cousin to me and also a descendant of Ann Morgan and John Courtney.  The Mellon surname is known to be connected to their family.
I so wish AncestryDNA had a chromosome browser!

When I looked at matches shared with this new person it showed an older one that I had flagged as a likely Morgan descendant also.  The surname was Hennessey so I searched for any other Hennessey matches and sure enough, there was another quite small one.  On looking at their trees (THANKFULLY they had them) I saw they were both descendants of a Patrick Morgan born about 1827 Ireland.

I've found the following baptism records for Derrynoose:

Patrick Morgan - 1 Feb 1827.
Parents Alexander Morgan and Nancy Lennon
Sponsors Bernard Morgan and Rose McGeough

My great-great-grandfather John Morgan - 30 Jun 1829
Parents Alexander Morgan and Ann Lennon
Sponsors James Lennon and Mary Morgan

Bridget Morgan - 1 Feb 1833
Parents Alexander Morgan and Ann Lennon
Sponsors Bernard and Ann Barka

So it looks like the Hennessey matches may confirm another Morgan line.  Patrick apparently married an Annie Bloomer and they emigrated to America as well.